NOTES: I made a few corrections to spellings and grammar.
I am no longer editing out the address of David P Beiter. It is an address of a place that doesn’t exist. As if his identity weren’t shrouded in mystery already.
Some of this looks like a file directory for a CD-ROM. I left it is because I wanted to keep the files intact. However, the titles in it are very interesting and peak my interest into what connections were made. I do not have a copy of these files. Perhaps, maybe one day, they will turn up.
If you missed previous parts to this part of the WORMSCAN series, you can find it here.
Date: Fri Sep 22, 1995 9:15 am CST
From: snet l
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: snet-l@world.std.com
TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: MENA, ARKANSAS: Congressman Bill Alexander confronts the IRS
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IRS SENIOR EMPLOYEE MISCONDUCT PROBLEMS
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Hearings before the Commerce, Consumer, and Monetary Affairs Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, One Hundred First Congress, First Session, July 25, 26, and 27, 1989.
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Washington : U.S. G.P.O. : For sale by the Supt. of Docs., Congressional Sales Office, U.S. G.P.O., 1989.
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GOV DOC # Y 4.G 74/7:Em 7/11.
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Congressman Doug Barnard, Jr. (D-Georgia) was Chairman of the Commerce, Consumer, and Monetary Affairs Subcommittee.
The following exchange is between William Alexander, Congressman (D-Arkansas), Michael Murphy, Senior Deputy Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, and Fred Goldberg, Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.
Excerpts are from pages 554-559.
Mr. BARNARD: Well — I want to take that back up. I think we need to. I have invited Mr. Alexander, who is not a member of the committee, but a former member of the committee, to come - to sit in at these hearings and according the accommodations that we have in Congress, I will give him the opportunity to ask any questions.
Mr. ALEXANDER: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
First, I would like to thank the chairman, the minority, and the entire committee for permitting these hearings and I would explain my reason for being here, to state for the record and under oath, if you wish, Mr. Chairman, that the House Appropriations Committee, specifically the Subcommittees on Commerce, Justice, State, and Judiciary and Treasury, both of which I am a member of, together and in cooperation with the Subcommittee on Crime, Chairman Hughes of the House Judiciary Committee, the General Accounting Office, and in cooperation with the Criminal Investigation Division of the Arkansas State Police, have been investigating events surrounding the Mena, AR, Airport for several years. The allegations here are of the most serious nature involving allegation of high crimes in high places in Washington.
They involve allegations that a C-123/C-130 operation, contract operation, was operating out of Mena Airport transporting guns to Central America and running drugs to Arkansas, and laundering money in Arkansas from the sale of those drugs.
I wish at this point to state publicly my appreciation for the cooperation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration, both of which agencies have cooperated with the House Appropriations Committee, the General Accounting Office, the Subcommittee on Crime, and the Arkansas State Police.
This investigation led us to the Internal Revenue Service about 1 year ago, at which time I attempted to obtain that agency's cooperation by asking IRS to provide access to one of the witnesses here today.
I believe it was in September of last year, because of the failure of that cooperation, I wrote a letter to Mr. Gibbs, who was then Commissioner, and I will submit a copy of that letter for the record, requesting the cooperation of the Commissioner and specifically requesting the access to information and testimony of Mr. Duncan.
I did not receive a reply to that letter by March of this year, and I spoke directly to Mr. Murphy, who appeared before our Committee on Treasury appropriations. Mr. Murphy appeared to be cooperative and stated his cooperation, but as of this moment, except for the evidence that I have heard here today and through the General Accounting Office resulting from the resignation of Mr. Duncan as a criminal investigator for the Internal Revenue Service, the IRS has not provided any evidence or any access to that evidence to me, to the Subcommittee on Crime nor to the General Accounting Office or the Arkansas State Police Criminal Division.
I will state for the record that it has only been through the resignation of Mr. Duncan and his testimony here today that we have discovered part of the truth that, we think will lead us to an indictment on money laundering charges for drug trafficking in Arkansas.
The action of the Internal Revenue Service has prevented the Government from investigating and prosecuting these cases in Arkansas.
I don't think that it is intentional on your part to do so, but I would like to state to you that I have for over a year been trying to gain access to Mr. Duncan's testimony.
It has been explained to me that you could not provide it because it was prevented by the security provisions of the confidentiality requirements on tax returns and grand jury information.
I might say that the emissary that you have sent to me has been most polite in explaining that to me.
The effect of the failure of your cooperation has been to permit the statute of limitations to continue to run on persons that we believe to be drug traffickers, in effect, to protect drug traffickers and their drug lords that are profiting from the illicit drug trafficking in the United States and specifically in my State of Arkansas.
That is to say, that little children in Arkansas are buying drugs because we are unable to discover sufficient evidence to bring indictments to prevent that from happening. I don't think you intend to do that, but that is the effect of the Government and the bureaucracy not cooperating with law enforcement officials.
It is a serious problem in this country, and one of the most serious obstacles to attacking the problem, the war on drugs, is the bureaucracy, the rules and regulations, and the intentional prevention of the submission of evidence that we have heard from the witnesses today.
I would just like to ask a couple of questions about those witnesses, because my committee, together with the Subcommittee on Crime, and in cooperation with this committee, will be subpoenaing you gentlemen in the future if that is necessary to get all the information. We hope that is not necessary.
Mr. Murphy, did you know that since I talked to you in March my effort to acquire access to needed information to pursue a prosecution in Arkansas has not been forthcoming?
Mr. MURPHY: Mr. Alexander, I am aware that there has been a serious issue as to what information, if any, we could provide to you. As you well pointed out, on the day that I testified before the House Appropriations Committee, we met and I thought we had — a good communication privately.
Mr. ALEXANDER: We had a good communication. We can stipulate that, but we still don't have any evidence.
Mr. MURPHY: I understand that. I thought you showed me a letter that you wrote to the Regional Commissioner in Southeast and I also recall that I apologized to you for not responding to it. I had.
Mr. ALEXANDER: You are correct. The letter was to the Regional Commissioner in Atlanta. I am mistaken about that. I will submit a copy of the letter for the record.
[The information follows:]
BILL ALEXANDER, M.C. 233 CANNON HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING ARKANSAS WASHINGTON, DC 20515(202) 225-4078
COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Congress of the United States
September 26, 1988
Mr. Thomas A. Cardoza
Regional Commissioner
Internal Revenue Service
Southeast Region
Post Office Box 926 (Room 600)
Atlanta, Georgia 30370
Dear Mr. Cardoza:
Please be advised that the General Accounting Office Congressman William Hughes, Senator John Kerry and I are conducting a Congressional investigation of illegal drug trafficking from Latin American countries to the United States.
Of particular interest is the use of Mena Airport in Arkansas as a staging area for the transport of arms to, and drugs from Central America.
One of your special operations coordinators, Bill Duncan has information relevant to this investigation. Accordingly, I herewith request that you authorize Bill Duncan to share all relevant information pertaining to the Congressional investigation which I have herein described.
Thanking you for your cooperation in this matter, I am
Sincerely yours,
BILL ALEXANDER
Member of Congress
BA/js
Mr. MURPHY: The apology for being non-responsive to the letter, whether you wrote to the Regional Commissioner, to me, or to the Commissioner, we should have responded.
Mr. ALEXANDER: It has been a year.
Mr. MURPHY: I know that.
Mr. ALEXANDER: The statute of limitations is running on the criminals.
Mr. MURPHY: I understand, but I had Ms. Morin with me. I am going to ask Mr. Keightley to respond to the question because there were issues that, upon the advice of counsel I gave directions that if there was some way that we could legally cooperate with your committee and provide information to you, that was my objective.
Mr. ALEXANDER: Mr. Murphy, I understand that you have rules and regulations to operate by and we don't want to violate those rules. It is not our purpose to do that. Our purpose is to try to stop drugs from coming into this country. Your interpretation of your rules and regulations are, in effect, cooperating with the drug lords. Your bureaucracy is preventing us from waging a war on drugs.
Mr. MURPHY: Mr. Alexander, before I ask Mr. Keightley to respond, I would like to point out to you, IRS agents, including Special Agent Duncan when he was with us, across the country have been partners in dealing with the war on drugs.
We have gotten much, much recognition on that and I think we can even do more on that. I think Mr. Keightley can respond to the specifics.
Mr. ALEXANDER: Mr. Keightley can respond for the record. I have heard the explanation. The basic problem here is that while I have the highest possible clearance that the Government can provide for secrecy — being cleared for secrets that the President and no one else gets, I have still been denied access to information in a criminal investigation in my State.
Now, Mr. Duncan came in here this morning and he has testified that he was prevented from offering evidence that he thought relevant to that investigation. In effect he has testified that he was, in effect, ordered to perjure himself in evidence before a grand jury.
I have other information that Mr. Duncan believes that the prevention of his testimony before the grand jury prevented an indictment on drug money laundering charges — very serious charges — and you were all part of that. What we want to do is to get to the bottom of this thing so that we are all working together to fight this war on drugs instead of fighting one another. We are fighting one another and we ought to be out here fighting these drug lords. Now, will you and Mr. Goldberg order all of the agents in the Internal Revenue Service to cooperate with these investigations and will you submit a memorandum to that effect and send us a copy of it?
Mr. GOLDBERG: Mr. Alexander, I will make crystal clear to every one of our employees that they are obligated to and they will cooperate to the fullest extent of the law with your investigation and any other investigation conducted by the Congress of the United States.
Mr. ALEXANDER: And will you put in writing to me the reason that you have not cooperated thus far?
Mr. GOLDBERG: Mr. Alexander, I have stopped beating my wife — I don't know whether we have cooperated or not, but I assure you I will personally look into this matter and I will personally be on your doorstep in the future with my report.
Mr. ALEXANDER: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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Date: Sat Sep 23, 1995 10:10 am CST
From: conspire
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: conspire@prairienet.org
TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: CONSPIRE digest 156
CONSPIRE Digest 156
Topics covered in this issue include:
1) Foster, NSA & Bank Spying by Brian Redman
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic No. 1
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 11:14:03 -0500 (CDT)
From: Brian Redman
To: conspire-post@firefly.prairienet.org
Subject: Foster, NSA & Bank Spying
Message-ID: og.Index.Doc
============
Now archived and available via anonymous ftp at ftp.shout.net in subdirectory pub/users/bigred
Allegations Regarding Vince Foster, the NSA, and Banking Transactions Spying by J. Orlin Grabbe
Basic instructions:
1) ftp ftp.shout.net
2) logon: anonymous
3) password: email@ <-- not meant literally!! Use first part of your e-mail address as the password
4) cd pub/users/bigred
5) og.Index.Doc (see below) has info you need
6) get og015 <-- not meant literally!! You can also "get og001", "get og023", etc.
NAME DESCRIPTION
=================================================================
og001 The Norman Allegations
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og002 Attorney Charles O. Morgan Counter-Attacks
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og003 Follow The Money
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og004 More On Charles O. Morgan
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og005 Intermission
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og006 Bibliography of News Articles Regarding Systematics
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og007 Virtual Realities in the Banking and National Security Worlds
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og008 Are U.S. Nuclear Secrets for Open Sale on the World Market?
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og009 Letter to Mr. Wierzynski, Assistant Staff Director, U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Banking and Financial Services
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og010 The BCCI-Lance-Stephens-Systematics-Hubbell-Clinton Connection
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og011 Collapse of BCCI Leads To FinCEN, Leads To Artificial Intelligence, Leads To PROMIS Software
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og012 Cabazon Indian Nation, Wackenhut, PROMIS, Michael Riconosciuto, and Danny Casolaro
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og013 Computer Virus Enters PROMIS Back Door And Shuts Down NSA Computers?
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og014 Mellon Bank's Pending RICO Suit May Blow Up The Whole Laundry Thang — But Capital's Mobile, Ain't It?
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og015 The World Of Money Laundering, Richard Mellon Scaife, Ed Meese, and FEMA
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og016 Recent Worms In Government Computers, and Federal Reserve Pressures Banks Into Banking Surveillance
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og017 Mellon Bank, Sheila Foster Anthony, Lisa Foster, and the $286,000 Wire Transfer; ALSO: July 1, 1993 to July 23, 1993 Sequence of Events
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og018 Death of Vince Foster Not Satisfactorily Investigated
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og019 The Triangular Trade. Parallels Between Arkansas and Pittsburgh.
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og020 Geneology of Mr. Grabbe and of the Mellon Family
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og021 Just Pay The Electric Bill, And Hand Me The Keys To The Mellon Bank
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og022 Mrs. Foster and Mrs. Anthony Are "Astonished and Incensed", But the Dump Truck Has Sand to Dump on Their Lawyer
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og023 Did Bush's Plumber Unit Do Dirty Tricks to Perot and Kill Foster? Did the "Blonde Hairs" Belong to Dee Dee Myers?
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og024 Assassination of Foster: Government Approved Hit or "Unprofessional" Panic by Politicians and Their Goons?
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og025 Money Laundering Interconnections
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og026 Mark Tuohey Has a Conflict of Interest, Abner Mikva Runs Out of Gas, and Some People are in Trouble
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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
O what fine thought we had because we thought | bigred@shout.net
That the worst rogues and rascals had died out. | Illinois,
— W.B. Yeats, "Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen" | I'm your boy.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
------------------------------
End of CONSPIRE Digest 156
**************************
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Date: Tue Oct 10, 1995 10:01 am CST
From: David J Sussman
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: djsussma@jupiter.acs.oakland.edu
TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Re: NTB! URGENT! High-Tech AmTrak Sabotage in Arizona !
> Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 06:43:48 -0700
From: pwatson@utdallas.edu
To: no-terrorism-bill@mail.webcom.com
Subject: Re: NTB! URGENT! High-Tech AmTrak Sabotage in Arizona !
Sender: owner-no-terrorism-bill@webcom.com
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: no-terrorism-bill@webcom.com
On Mon, 9 Oct 1995 clarkm@cnct.com wrote:
>> Hi Mike and thanks! Who detained the two "non-suspects", do you know?
>> Maricopa County deputies? They have/had jurisdiction until the FBI got involved.
>> Why the guess about the Mexican border? The site is described as "south of Phoenix" and very desolate. It'd have to be way far south of Phoenix to be really close to Mexico, eh?
>> Do you use PGP? I'll send my key if you need it.
>> Best, Clark
>> * clark.matthews@paranet.org
* PERMISSION TO
* COPY / REPOST
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
N E M O..M E..I M P U N E..L A C E S S I T
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
****************************************************************
>> UCC 1-207 WP Unsubcribe to no-terrorism-bill-request@webcom.com with word "unsubscribe" in body of message | howard@pc-man.com
> At about 5:30 pm central time on the David Gold radio show KLIF 570am a retired "Air America" pilot, that's the CIA MENA airline, called in. I have heard this guy over the last several years and he knew Barry Seal(?) and Terry Reed and all the MENA drug running for contra arms people. He lives in the Texas Panhandle and sounds like he is for real. I should also mention that I saw him at a Dallas public meeting for that Larry fellow who made the "Clinton Chronicles". They hugged and cried as they talked about how they were both walking dead men for going public. Anyway, David Gold asked him if he had heard of the group "Sons of the Gestapo". He said yes they were a Mexican gang that has stolen TV and electronics from trains and then would cross back into Mexico and they have been around for years and are well know by the FBI. He said this is the first time they had ever done anything terrorist.
> I think the local police should find out the location of all BATF employees for several days prior to the derailment. Did not Clinton say a few weeks ago something to the effect of "what else is it going to take for you to pass the Terrorist bill"???
----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Paul Watson, pwatson@utdallas.edu Purchasing Department "DISCLAIMER"
> The University of Texas at Dallas ph# 214/883-2307, fax# 214/883-2348
----------------------------------------------------------------------
****************************************************************
> UCC 1-207 WP Unsubscribe to no-terrorism-bill-request@webcom.com with word "unsubscribe" in body of message | howard@pc-man.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Sussman
Oakland University SBA WWW Administrator
djsussma@jupiter.acs.oakland.edu
http://sba_server.sba.oakland.edu/staff/djsussma/djsussma.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
Date: Thu Oct 19, 1995 5:42 pm CST
From: snet l
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: snet-l@world.std.com
TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Mena: pressure increases for Congressional action
[From *Money Laundering Bulletin*, October 1995, p. 7. Address: 173 Dalling Road, London W6 0ES; editorial inquiries 44-171-221-8853; subscription inquiries 44-181-749-6951; fax 44-181-749-6951.]
Mena: pressure increases for Congressional action
Washington: Pressure is increasing in the US for a full-scale investigation into the role of Bill Clinton in the Mena affair, when governor of Arkansas in the 1980s.
The questions currently being asked are: When did Bill Clinton first learn that there was a major and possibly Iran-Contra linked drugs-running operation being run from Arkansas? And what did Arkansas state police know of the alleged shipment of narcotics and weapons in the 1980s?
According to some reports, a Republican-led Congress is turning a blind eye to the new material which is being unearthed on the case, possibly because Republicans may be involved.
Mr. Kenneth Starr, the Whitewater independent counsel, is being drawn every more deeply into the Mena affair, as he attempts to trace cash contributions to Clinton's gubernatorial election coffers and the complex financial relationships linking the Clintons and the current Arkansas governor Jim Tucker with banks, businessmen and land deals.
Starr has reportedly uncovered evidence of large-scale money laundering activities in the state, which together with allegations made by state trooper LD Brown, reveal that Clinton had knowledge of Iran-Contra Narcotics trafficking.
Congressional aides involved in the Whitewater inquiries have admitted that it is "increasingly odd" the reluctance of congressmen to investigate claims about Mena as more information on the Arkansas drugs economy of the 1980s emerges.
------------------------------------------
Date: Mon Oct 23, 1995 9:11 pm CST
From: snet l
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: snet-l@world.std.com
TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Mena, Arkansas: Tom Valentine interviews Lt. Com. Alex Martin
[The following interview with Lt. Commander Alexander Martin (retired) took place on Tom Valentine's Radio Free America program on July 10, 1995. Valentine's comments follow "Q" while Martin's follow "A".]
Q: Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
A: I'm Alexander Martin of Iran-contra fame. I testified before the Kerry committee and every single investigating committee in Congress from 1987 until 1990. I was the former employer, employee and subordinate of Major General Richard Secord, a name familiar to people. In 1984, I was approached by a representative of the good general with a mandate that I raise money and form a series of corporations to raise money and legitimize flows of money to what Oliver North described as "the cause" and what Secord described as "the enterprise". That was a covert and illegal effort to support and maintain a contra army within the border of Nicaragua.
Q: I've heard you were instrumental in much of this.
A: I don't know how instrumental I was, but I raised millions for these boys.
Q: A lot of us have heard a lot about the so-called "Iran-contra" affair which was very big in the media at one time, during the congressional hearings, etc., but based upon what I know, I don't think the public really knows the whole story. Do you think it has been clarified as to what really did happen?
A: Of course not. Anyone who is in the people's government who is a politician obviously doesn't have a vested interest in telling the people the truth. I'm going to try to tell the truth.
Q: You were a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy prior to your involvement in the Iran-contra affair?
A: Yes, but I was retired from the Navy at the time I was brought into what later became known as Iran-contra. That's when I became very closely aligned with Richard Secord, Oliver North, Jeb Bush, Felix Rodriquez and a whole panoply of people who essentially ran Iran-contra as it were.
[Q+A section on public's attitude omitted]
Q: I actually had somebody tell me recently that, in their words, "Iran-contra was no big deal. They were fighting communism, weren't they?"
A: What became known as Iran-contra (and it was then-Attorney General Edwin Meese who thought up the terminology) was the largest illegal covert operation the government has ever undertaken. It involved nearly 5,000 people at one time, billions of taxpayers' dollars and egregious acts of government which were illegal, including, obviously, the surreptitious trafficking in arms and narcotics, as part of a state-sanctioned policy. There has been great speculation in the press ever since the collapse of Iran-contra about the CIA's sponsorship of narcotics trafficking to generate covert revenues and the illegal trafficking of weapons, etc.
Q: There are still many who believe Iran-contra was not a government-sponsored affair; that those who were responsible were part of a so-called "rogue" operation by people who did it for their own profit.
A: To some extent, it's true. I've been asked about this before. There were billions upon billions of dollars raised, ostensibly to support a 50,000-man rebel army in Nicaragua. And the money raised was certainly vast resources beyond what was necessary to support that army. When Oliver North, before the Kerry Senate hearing was asked by Senator Dan Inouye, how much of those billions that the taxpayers were raped and pillaged for actually went to support the Nicaraguan contras, North himself said in public testimony that it was only 3 percent.
Q: Only 3 percent? That means 97 percent went somewhere else.
A: It went into people's pockets. General Secord certainly profited handsomely. General John Singlaub and a host of others did likewise. However, would it have been possible for these men to carry out such an enormous conspiracy, to traffic in such enormous quantities of illegal items, without the duplicity and complicity of the United States government?
Q: I don't see how it would have been possible.
A: It would not have been possible, and it was not possible at the time to do so. I think George Bush said it very well in an interview with Sarah McClendon, the grand dame of the Washington press corps. When Bush consented to an interview with Mrs. McClendon in June of 1992, he said on record, which she printed in her newsletter that month, when she asked him about Iran-contra and he said, (and I'm quoting from her newsletter): "If the people were to ever find out what we have done, we would be chased down the streets and lynched." This was a public comment by George Bush.
Q: George Bush actually admitted that?
A: He said it and it was printed in Mrs. McClendon's newsletter in June of 1992.
Q: That's interesting since Bush just got reimbursed for his legal fees arising from the Iran-contra affair. Could you refresh us as to the details of Iran-contra from your unique vantage point as a participant?
A: Very simply put, what became known as Iran-contra was originally an operational policy formulated by the director of central intelligence William Casey, early in the Reagan presidency. It was codenamed "Operation Eagle" at that time. It was essentially put on the shelf until 1983, renamed "Operation Black Eagle", and Oliver North was brought into it at that time. One of the first things Ronald Reagan did was to appoint lowly lieutenant colonel Oliver North to be director of the then-secret National Programs Office (NPO), an agency which, in 1983, was still very highly classified.
Q: Who suggested North's appointment to Reagan?
A: CIA Director Bill Casey. North was his hand-picked fellow. As far as Ronald Reagan's role in Iran-contra (which I'm often asked about), I have only met him once in my official capacity. It was always my impression that Ronald Reagan had the broad concept of establishing a "contra" (or rebel) army inside Nicaragua to act as a ward against what he perceived to be a spreading Red tide in Central America. But that is about all Reagan thought and that is about all he knew, at least based upon what I was able to perceive at the time. He didn't come up with the policy; he was not kept informed in regular briefings. All Iran-contra initiatives were ultimately consolidated under the office of Vice President George Bush who was ultimately responsible for the initiation of policies. He was fully apprised of virtually every operation.
Q: Bush told the public that he was "out of the loop".
A: In fact, it was Reagan who was out of the loop. Certainly that was my perception at the time. It was CIA Director Casey's idea to consolidate Iran-contra operations under the office of the Vice President so that they wouldn't "stick out" so much, as it were.
Q: The contra operations are relatively simple to understand. But how did Iran become involved in the picture?
A: The whole concept of "Iran-contra" is a misnomer. It was thought up by Ed Meese, who went on national television the day after Thanksgiving in 1986 and told the American people that their government had been involved in an illegal act: to wit, the sale of arms to Iran and a diversion of the profits from those weapons to support the Nicaraguan contras. That's all Meese said. The ruse of talking about "Iran-contra" was done to misdirect the media into looking at the Iranian aspect of it and stay away from the contra and Central American aspect of it. It was in the latter case that the real political and legal liability for the government lay.
Q: And this is where the real profit lay as well.
A: Narcotics were not involved with the Iranian operations. The more egregious acts involving our government didn't relate to the sale of some $30 million in TOW missiles to the Iranian government. Frankly, no one cared about it at the time.
Q: The left-leaning Sandinistas government was in power in Nicaragua at this time and Ronald Reagan wanted to drive them out. Congress did not.
A: As early as 1983 Congress was fighting aid to the contras. They were afraid of another Vietnam-style involvement. We were facing a well-equipped 120,000 man Sandinista army, thanks to arms from the Soviets. Therefore they appropriated very little money (less than $100 million) during 1983 to 1986. Even that, Congress stipulated, would only go to "civilian materiel assistance." That is, non-weapons. However, as it turned out, as Oliver North pointed out, it didn't work out that way, but that is what Congress intended.
Q: Somebody is going to make a lot of money in any war.
A: As Richard Secord was fond of saying, "If you look up the word 'covert' in the dictionary, you'll find a dollar sign next to it."
Q: You were part of the financial end of Iran-contra, setting up dummy companies that handled money for the operation.
A: Effectively, I was "legitimizing" money for the operation. I would set up an investment company, let us say oil and gas, which tends to be one of the oldest of right-wing favorites, for the production of covert revenue. I would be provided by Richard Secord with lists of very well-heeled Republicans who were supportive of "the cause" (Iran-contra) and wish to contribute money but could not do so insofar as it was an illegal action of state. Therefore I would set up an investment which existed nowhere else but in a file drawer and I would sell this investment product to these "investors" and the money would wind up in the hands of Oliver North and Richard Secord, ostensibly to support "the cause". When the fraud was perpetrated in this act was on the U.S. Treasury, insofar as the money that these people were supposedly investing they got to write off on a very high-levered basis. Consequently the IRS was denied substantial revenues that they should have received.
Q: How did people manage that since there is very little that is able to be written off these days?
A: This was prior to the 1986 tax reform laws. These are 50 percent maximum tax bracket days. These are the days of many tax shelters, oil and gas certainly being premier among them. Obviously if you had a very well-heeled gentleman in the 50 percent tax bracket, and you could provide him with an investment where he could write off his money on a two-for-one leveraged basis, then after taxes, his so-called "investment" didn't cost him a dime. And, as Oliver North used to remind me, he had the gratification of serving America — certainly Oliver North's version of America. One reason I've been speaking out is that I have to defend myself. Obviously, Oliver North has criticized me publicly in the past, even on his radio talk show.
North has said, for instance, that by telling the American people the truth about what he and other did that I am being "unpatriotic". That is essentially what he has said in his criticisms of me. That it is obviously "unpatriotic" to tell the American people the truth about what their government has been doing to them, a truth that if the American people ever fully realized what has been done to them and did something about it, could — in North's words — "prove dangerous to the political order of the state."
Q: Let's hope so. The political order of the state brought us Oliver North and his scandal. Now if they had been able to solve the problem in Central America, we might conclude that they had done a good deed. How do you look at that?
A: The original concept, in my estimation, was noble. But after 1983 it became twisted as those in the shadows of government recognized an opportunity to profit by this. They recognized that in the name of "patriotism" they were able to rape and pillage banks, securities and insurance firms, to traffic in illicit items, all in the name of profit, and nothing in the name of patriotism.
Q: This was a secret, covert operation so they could virtually get away with murder.
A: Absolutely correct. The government was forced endlessly to cover up for fraud by people who were only marginally connected to Iran-contra operations.
Q: The rape of the savings and loans was all part of this tax scam, for this covert operation (Iran-contra), which became a scam.
A: The best description of what Iran-contra became was said to me in a conversation with Richard Secord in September of 1985. I told the general that I was becoming nervous about the volume of activity that we had become engaged in. I was concerned that if the American people found out that the political repercussions would be enormous. I pointed out to him that the vast amount of money being raised was far beyond what was necessary to support a 50,000-man army. It wouldn't have taken a tenth of what we were raising.
Q: Where does the CIA's Mena, Arkansas drugs-and-arms smuggling operation fit into all of this?
A: Mena was essentially the hub of Olive North's so-called guns-for-drugs operations. It was drugs flowing north and guns flowing south. How Mena actually came into existence was that Mena was actually a secure facility of the National Programs Office in 1983. You will notice that all of the facilities used in the weapons and narcotics transactions — that is, at the well-known places mentioned in the press before, such as Iron Mountain, Texas, the airfield at Joplin Missouri, the airfield at Fire Lakes, Nevada, etc. had a common link in that they were all facilities controlled by the National Programs Office, an office that could operate in extreme secrecy and initially keep these sites extremely secure. That is how we got to Mena. Also at Mena there were existing CIA facilities and you had an existing CIA command structure: communications and logistics support. I was the first person to reveal the names of the CIA support people on the ground at Mena. Now Mena is coming back in the news. There is a move within some GOP circles on Capitol Hill to bring it back. We have not heard the last of Mena.
Q: Are you not afraid for your personal safety in exposing all of this? There have been a lot of "suicides" we've been hearing about and other strange deaths related to all this.
A: Out of the roughly 5,000 of us who were originally involved in Iran-contra, approximately 400, since 1986, have committed suicide, died accidentally or died of natural causes. I knew every single person who has died. In over half of these deaths, official death certificates were never even issued. In 187 circumstances, the bodies were cremated before the families were even notified. I am lying low, so to speak. I have been forced to do so. ###
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Date: Mon Oct 23, 1995 10:42 pm CST
From: snet l
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: snet-l@world.std.com
TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Barry Seal Evades Dec tection of Flight Path by Defense Satellites
Barry Seal Evades Detection of Flight Path by Defense Satellites
[The following excerpt recounts a flight Terry Reed took with Barry Seal and is taken from *Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA*, by Terry Reed and John Cummings, Shapolsky Publishers, 1994.]
The white Lear was airborne and heading south at 10 AM with "Emile Camp" at the controls and Barry Seal on the radio. Once on their flight plan, and in Mexican airspace, at a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet, Seal went to the rear of the aircraft, grabbed two pilot map cases and dragged them to the front. These were the same type of cases Terry had seen earlier in Seal's Aero Commander that blew the engine in Texarkana. Inside were custom aluminum boxes containing sophisticated electronics, some of which Terry recognized.
"GNS-500s. Damn, those things used to cost a half-million apiece and you've got two?"
"Nuthin' but the best when you're workin' for Uncle," Seal quipped. "And these ain't your normal 500's. They're modified to do "special" things. With these babies, we can not only pinpoint our position via satellite within about 10 meters, we can find the window to the Bermuda Triangle. That takes accuracy, son."
GNS-500s are navigational radios that continuously read the aircraft's position in latitude and longitude via digital readouts. This, coupled with their capability of storing and processing complex flight plans and denoting wind speeds at various altitudes, and determining ground tracks would give the jet the ability to fly without making contact with ground controllers. Earlier in his aviation training, Terry had attended an advanced navigation class in St. Louis, which taught the operation of this system, but he never thought he would see two of them worth more than $1 million in the same portable box. This was the same type of sophisticated navigation system aboard the Korean 747 airliner, Flight 007, shot down by a Soviet MIG in September, 1983. That aircraft had only one GPS (Global Positioning System). Seal had two to guarantee pinpoint navigation accuracy.
Under the control panel on the co-pilot's side, Red Hall had installed a secret power buss that Seal accessed with a jumper cable to power the GNS-500s. With another jack, Seal connected the antennas, hidden within the fuselage of the plane, to the radios in the box making everything operational.
Terry sat in awe as he watched while Seal removed a piece of paper from his shirt pocket and punched in the coordinates of the entire flight plan.
"OK, I'll just hook up the ground and satellite communications equipment in this other box and it'll be time for us to 'disappear'," Seal chuckled.
As he opened the second box, Terry saw an array of electronics and radios with ultra-high radio frequency ranges totally foreign to him. On a sticker in the middle of the control panel was a service note, saying: "Direct all service inquiries to Summit Aviation, Middleton, Delaware."
. . . What Seal was preparing to do was to "blind" a Department of Defense satellite designed as a sentry to give advance warning of incoming hostile weapons systems. This would provide a window through which the Lear could fly through undetected. At the same time, Seal said, secret military surveillance tracking stations manned by U.S. Army intelligence personnel would emit large bursts of energy to jam the U.S. and Mexican ATC radar.
Terry felt he was seeing the results of all the Star Wars counter-measures technology. This, he now realized, was how Seal's Operation Jade Bridge aircraft, codenamed Dodger, had been able to enter and leave the United States without being detected. If there had ever been a doubt in Terry's mind about who Seal was, and how high he was connected, it had been put to rest forever. Seal got his flight plan authorizations not from someone on the ground, like most pilots, but from satellites out in space.
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